


The Rising Tide

by RainbowArches



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, I Believe in Jasper Sitwell, Kinda Crackish
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-04
Updated: 2015-08-10
Packaged: 2018-04-07 14:18:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4266432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainbowArches/pseuds/RainbowArches
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With love, from SHIELD's adorable pain in the ass.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Name: Danjuma, Emma                                DOB: November 12, 1993

Eye col: brown                                  Hair col: black                     Height: 5’ 3”

Place of residence: New York     Occupation: Student                     

 

“From what we can gather, she doesn’t do any actual hacking. She’s the one responsible for covering everyone’s tracks.”

Nick raised an eyebrow at the limited description. “Is this as specific as you can get?”

“I’m afraid so, sir,” Maria said, not particularly apologetic. “Like I said, they’re hacktivists.”

The eyebrow climbed even higher. “Hacktivists?”

“That’s what they call themselves, sir. My point being that they’ve made a life of anonymity on the internet and it’s hard to keep up. You should put Romanov on it.”

“I have a whole department responsible for keeping track of this stuff and they can’t manage a few overzealous kids,” Nick grumbled. “Oh well. Continue.”

 

Names: Gonzales, Ramona          DOB: August 19, 1983

Eye col: green                              Hair col: brown                  Height: 5’ 6”

Place of residence: New York     Occupation:  Professor (Criminal Justice)

 

Nick sat up a little straighter. “Any relation to-“

“I asked,” Maria interrupted. “He was suspiciously tight-lipped, but there’s more than one Gonzales family in New York, sir.”

“I suppose if she’s anything like her friends it would be impossible for SHIELD’s highly trained internet police to find out.”

“I said you weren’t taking them seriously enough.”

“You’re loving this, aren’t you?”

Maria smirked and continued. “It’s safe to assume that Danjuma attends Gonzales’s class on Wednesday evenings. Gonzales has given us some trouble because she seems to have legal access to the secrets she’s been leaking, but Danjuma doesn’t let anything get traced back to her. We don’t even know who she’s affiliated with.”

Nick sighed. “I hate vigilantes. Except when they let me hire them. Maybe I’ll just hire these people.”

Maria kept her face pointedly blank. “Moving on.”

 

Name: Kobayashi, Hiroko             DOB: May 3, 1985

Eye col: brown                             Hair col: black                     Height: 5’ 4”

Place of residence: British Colombia        Occupation: Model

 

“She, I am happy to say, is Canada’s problem. This woman is everywhere. She gets pictures of everything and they make it online faster than you can blink. Unfortunately her identity changes so often that we can’t be sure she isn’t fifty different people.”

“I’m familiar with this identity. Was she also a singer at one point?”

“Yeah. Anyway.”

 

 

Name: Lydon, Miles                        DOB: August 4, 1984

Eye col: brown                                Hair col: brown                  Height: 6’ 3”

 

“This guy has been a huge pain in our ass before. He seems to have vanished for now, but he’s definitely working closely with someone. We’re not sure who.”

 

 

Name: Tsosie, Sarah                       DOB: June 13, 1997

Eye col: brown                                Hair col: black                     Height: 5’ 2”

Place of residence: New Mexico                               Occupation: Student

 

“Amateur, but persistent. If she thinks someone’s hiding something, she will find out what it is, and she will make sure everyone knows.”

“So that’s the Rising Tide.”

“Yep. Most of them, anyway.”

“There’s _more_?”

“Yes. If we ever manage to find them, I’ll let you know.”

 

Skye leaned precariously forward on her tree branch and knocked on Emma’s bedroom window. The window was promptly unlatched and opened. Skye accepted the two proffered hands that helped her crawl through.

“Why do you always have to climb through the window?” Emma asked in a hushed voice. “You know my parents are never home Monday nights. Just use the door.”

“Then why are we whispering?” Skye whispered.

“Because you insist on being overdramatic like that.”

Skye dropped her bag on the floor next to the desk chair and sat down. “We’ve got work to do,” Skye said in her normal voice.

“And I’ve got class in six hours.”

Skye ignored her. “SHIELD has renewed their interest in our activities so I need you to do some spring cleaning. And then I’ve got more stuff to spill online.”

Emma sighed and dragged another chair to the desk to get to work. “You’ll get me up at two in the morning for this but you won’t take me to the bar with you,” she mumbled.

“Because I care. Okay, shove over, it’s my turn.”

“But I’m not done!”

“You are for now. Let me just…” Skye trailed off as she typed frantically.

“What are you putting on there?”

“SHIELD stuff.”

“The Avengers?”

“Kinda. Okay, done. Go ahead and finish up.”

 

“Guess what I just spent the afternoon erasing from existence,” Maria said as she let herself into Nick’s office. Without waiting for a response she said, “Pretty much the never-before-told origin story of Hawkeye and Black Widow.”

“Oh,” said Nick. “Damn.”

“Yeah.”

“How long was it up?”

“Long enough. You have got to put someone on this full time.”

Nick sighed. "You're right. Get Sitwell in here.”

 

Sometimes, when Emma or Ramona talked about school, Skye wondered if dropping out had been the best idea. And then she sat through a couple college classes with Emma and decided it was the best idea.

“You do this _all day_?” Skye said incredulously.

Ramona smiled as she packed up her papers. “I don’t know how I manage either,” she said. “What can I help you with this time?”

“Can you get into Stark Industries?”

Ramona’s smile turned into a smirk. “I can get into anywhere.”

 

Jasper read through the tiny Rising Tide file, put it back on Nick’s desk, and asked, “What are you showing me that for, sir?”

“Well, as you can see, these kids are fast and persistent, and it would be helpful-“

“No.”

“-if someone could monitor-“

“No.”

“-their activities full time-“

“No.”

“-so that we can deal with the leaks as they happen-“

“No.”

“-and prevent a collapse or statewide panic or suchlike. I thought you-“

“No.”

“-would be up for the job.”

“No! No I am damn well not up for the job! Do you know how hard it is picking up Coulson’s slack _and_ playing a convincing Hydra agent? The emotional conflict alone is giving me insomnia, not helped by the fact that my twins have colic and my wife is about to snap! I can’t handle anything else on top of all that!”

At some point Jasper had grabbed hold of Nick’s jacket and was shaking him a little. Now he threw his arms around Nick’s waist and burst into tears. “ _Pleasedon’tmakemedoitsiryoucan’tmakeme_!”

Nick patted Jasper’s back comfortingly. Luckily these meltdowns were not common among senior agents, but this was certainly not the first Nick had witnessed and he was utterly calm in the face of it.

“Okay, okay, calm down. I’ll make Romanov do it.”

Jasper sniffled. “Thank you sir.”

 

Sarah found all the fun stuff. It didn’t make Skye feel any more comfortable allowing a sixteen-year-old into a group who pissed off secret government agencies for a living, but it was hard to say no to this kid.

“So you know how crop circles are only worth looking into if you’re a nutcase? Well, it was worth me looking into too.”

“Crop circles are alien?” Skye twirled the phone cord around her finger. Who had a landline anymore? Seriously? Mrs. Lydon, apparently.

“One of them is.”

“Is this a Thor thing?”

“No. Seems like a pretty generic alien thing.”

“Cool. Can’t wait to see it.”

 

Natasha had not been thrilled with this new assignment. She was essentially a nanny cam. Now that she’d been at it for a few hours, having poured through the stuff the Rising Tide had managed to get their hands on and deleted it, only for it to reappear somewhere else moments later, she grinned maniacally, and played it like whack-a-mole. Later she’d hack into them and shut them down, but for now she’d take them on the fun way. They owed her for that little stunt, after all.


	2. Chapter 2

Skye stared at her phone for a solid five minutes. The text was the address of a café, a time, and a simple _Lets meet._ She should feel nervous. She didn’t know who sent the text, but she could guess, and it gave her butterflies; the excited kind.

She didn’t text back. She didn’t text her team either, because she didn’t need to. She put her phone away and did her best to sleep. She was at the café bright and early the next morning to await her lunch date.

 

Natasha paused at the door of the café, turned around, and smiled and waved at the woman texting across the street. She was going to be prepared for pictures this time, and she was going to look great.

Her date- and one day when she needed a laugh she’d tell Fury and Hill all about this- was sitting at a table by the window, looking intensely at her phone. She was probably going for an important business look. Natasha could tell she was just playing Solitaire.

Natasha sat down and broke off a piece of the woman’s biscotti.

“I wouldn’t,” she said, not looking up from her phone. “It’s really dry.”

Natasha ate it anyway. It was dry, but it wasn’t terrible. She didn’t try to hide her smirk as she examined the other woman. Her date was obviously trying to play it cool. Natasha could see the tightness around her mouth where she was biting the inside, and there was a faint blush creeping around her cheekbones.

“It’s rude to play on your phone while you’re talking to someone,” Natasha scolded lightly.

The woman looked up at her from under eyelashes, smiled, and put her phone away, unconcerned.

“So,” Natasha continued. “You know who I am. What can I call you?”

“Skye.” She folded her hands on the table and leaned forward, letting her excitement show more. “So what did you want to see me about? You’re not here to kill me, are you? Cause that would suck. Though if anyone’s going to kill me I want it to be you, cause that would be really cool.”

Natasha sucked her lips in to keep from laughing. “So… do you want me to kill you or not?”

“Well, no, but if you’re _going_ to kill me can you wait for just a little while? I want to enjoy my first real meeting with an Avenger before I die.”

“I’m not here to kill you,” Natasha assured her. “I’m not even here on business, technically. I just wanted to meet you. You’re the only one SHIELD doesn’t have a file on.”

Skye’s eyes lit up in a pleased-with-herself sort of way. “Really?” she said. “Don’t suppose you’d care to elaborate?”

“Not really. To tell you the truth-“

“Dangerous habit.”

“-I’d rather piss off my boss by taking you on a date.”

Skye was on the edge of her seat. The gleam in her eye was turning a bit manic. “Like a real date? Where we’re each sleeping with the enemy? Does that mean your boss is going to kill me?”

“You’re not that high on our priority list. It’ll still be fun though.”

“Okay. Where do you want to go? I’m broke, by the way. Spring for coffee?”

 

On the roof of the tattoo parlor across the street from the café, Clint watched Natasha chat up what appeared to be a slightly overzealous fan girl, but who was in fact the leader of the group responsible for leaking his life story onto the internet. It was his only reason for being here. Natasha could handle herself, and Clint was happy to let her do what she would. He just needed to see for himself exactly what they were dealing with. He pulled out his phone and took a picture of her.

On the roof of the apartment building behind the tattoo parlour, Hiroko focused her camera on Hawkeye, zoomed in, and snapped a picture.

 

Natasha’s arm rested casually around Skye’s shoulders as they wandered through the park, looking for a suitably scary ride. Skye lifted her hand to hold Natasha’s, keeping her arm in place.

“My boyfriend’s going to be so jealous,” said Skye. “He’s got a huge crush on you.”

“Yeah? Want to make out? Your friend can send him a picture.”

“Nah. I think he’d enjoy that too much.” She deliberately didn’t acknowledge the truth of Natasha’s comment, that Hiroko was following them with a camera, and made a conscious effort not to look around for SHIELD agents.

The two of them ignored each other briefly while they each took a moment to surreptitiously send a text.

 

Clint looked at his phone.

_On a date. Go away._

Immediately followed by: _Japanese woman in purple scarf, gold earrings._

 

Hiroko looked at her phone.

_Put phone away. Look for spies._

Immediately followed by: _Black Widow’s holding my hand OMG!! =) !!!_

Hiroko and Clint each pretended not to notice each other as they pickpocketed each other’s phones and deleted all evidence of that day’s events, returning each other’s phones before either of them noticed it was missing, scanned the area three more times, and went home.

 

Nick scrubbed his face with his hands tiredly. Natasha watched him with that shit eating smirk of hers.

“First of all, I don’t think playing the date was necessary with this one, but something tells me you weren’t playing.”

Natasha’s smirk grew a little.

“Second, what the hell, Romanov? You’re supposed to shut them down. Should have been easy for you. What are you playing with them for?”

Natasha softened a little. “Relax, Sir. I wasn’t blowing off work completely. I made sure nothing got out.”

“In all fairness,” Maria said, because she just couldn’t help herself. “You weren’t taking them too seriously either, Sir.”

Nick glared at the two of them and sighed. “Fine. Whatever. It’s your case; do what you want with them. Just keep them offline.”

“Will do, Sir,”

“I’m going to officially bump them up on my priority list, just to be safe.”

“Good idea.”

 

Hiroko sat on the floor of Skye’s van, sulking.

“Look on the bright side,” Skye said. “You got to meet Hawkeye.”

“Kind of.”

“You actually pickpocketed each other. How badass is that?”

Hiroko’s mouth twitched into a smile.

“I suppose. Still, I’m not sure I even wanted to post those pictures. I got some really nice ones. Nothing incriminating.”

“They’re spies,” Skye reminded her. “All pictures are incriminating.”

“Well, I would have liked to keep them anyway. But at least they don’t have pictures of us anymore.”

“That’s the spirit.”

“So, how was your date with Black Widow?”

“Oh my God we held hands the whole time and we kissed on the Ferris wheel and she won me a teddy bear and her hair smells like apples it was awesome oh my God!”

Hiroko sighed. “I was this close to plugging my number into Hawkeye’s phone. But I think he has a girlfriend.”

“Anyone we need to worry about?”

“Nah.”

 

“How’s it going?” Clint asked, kissing Laura on the temple.

“This Emma kid’s good. As soon as I get my hands on something it disappears. I had the foresight to print off the pictures you sent me before my email got hacked, but we’re really low on ink so they’re all blotchy.” She closed her laptop with a sigh.

Clint rubbed her arm comfortingly. “Don’t worry about it. SHIELD and the Rising Tide have been at this dance for a while now. They scare us, we scare them back. None of it really goes anywhere.”

“Well, if you’re sure,” she said, patting his hand. “I’m going to call Nat, see how her date went.”

 

 

 


End file.
